Our second moot of 2023 saw the appearance of Kittee, Sarah, Gareth and myself at Chilli Devils at The New Clarence.

There was definitely a convivial air with a new talented musician beautiful singing modern songs rather than folk, but still with a folk sound.

As far as food went, we enjoyed dirty burgers and Sunday roasts, making for a very satisfying moot…

Gareth has recently been working on classical mythology, specifically Greek. He had noticed that there were many parallels between classic mythology and Tolkien’s work.

Gareth’s interest and observation was the journey of the Odyssey, and the events met along the was. Both the Hobbit and The Odyssey are about journeys with both characters interacting with strange beings as they progress. The notion of Beorn and Polyphemus as “wildman” figures and the notion of Tolkien’s three brutish trolls and the three Cyclops brothers. Also, Polyphemus’ talking ring and the talking pouch of the trolls. Gareth said that “I guess I just started looking for parrallels elsewhere after that… One being the uninvited guests (dwarves, Penelope’s suitors), and the reluctant adventurer, Bilbo, and Odysseus…” This generated a conversation about how mythology shapes language but also how much would be involved with developing this observation. Certainly something for us all to keep in mind and keep adding notes and observations to. A(nother) “box-file” project for Gareth.

Gene mentioned Elrond’s comment in The Fellowship of the Ring chapter “The Council of Elrond” whereby Elrond says:

“Time was when a squirrel could go from tree to tree from what is now the Shire to Dunland west
of Isengard. In those lands I journeyed once, and many things wild and strange I knew.”

Having made a recent observation that there are many instances of this suggestion being made many times for different areas of England, Scotland and Wales. These were observations made from writings within the last two or three centuries with connections to the old Kingdom of Elmet, the Forest of Dean and more. However, more specifically, EV Gordon and Tolkien mention this in their translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: “from Blacon Point to Helbree / A squirrel may leap from tree to tree”; a 1925 translation of a 14thC text making it the oldest (translated) reference Gene could find. Tolkien believed in making use of all his knowledge and understanding of the world in his writings. Squirrels’ [and foxes] relationship with the woodlands of Britain, and with Tolkien’s writings may need more looking at.

The subject of Michael Ainslabie Denham and the word “hobbit” also came up. In his collections of Northern folklore, Denham referenced the word “hobbit”, between “grants” and “hobgoblins” in one of his pamphlets sometime between 1846 and his death in 1859. In addition to his own pamphlets, Denham’s work was collated by The Folklore Society in publications between 1893 and 1895. Could some of these works have been available to Tolkien when he was making his Northern visits (see the previous William Charles Mountain – Our Northern Saruman? post). Unfortunately, the Durham County Record Office, which holds many of Denham’s works by both him and others, is currently closed until the end of this year. A future research trip!

The remainder of this month’s moot picked up in the earlier Greek mythology thread, specifically Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey, something which Kittee was very enthusiastic about. It provides a more female-centric translation of the text of which Kittee had recently spent a lot of time with, along with “The Shadow of the Gods”, the first in the “Bloodsworn Saga”, a trilogy by John Gwynne, a Viking re-enactor whose writing career has been based around this Northern Courage.